1961 – Kindergarten – The Year I turned Five

Camelot Was Born In America

      It was this year that my bio-computer made dramatic advances of laying down and branching out millions of new neural networks. These new networks were set down in preparation for my effective survival in this harsh world.

Despite a few sensory flaws due to mechanical problems caused by the over-oxygenated incubator I had been imprisoned shortly after birth; my bio-computer was enjoying phenomenal growth.

      It was if a veil was lifted from my senses and the flood gates of my neural networks open wide to allow much greater array of sensory information to rush in and be readily available for my brain to assimilate, computate and evaluate.

      It seemed as if overnight, I was able to read… even adult books and give accurate detailed seminars on what I read. It was this year that I began to notice and ponder the differences in people’s physical attributes, such as: “ Why doesn’t Uncle Antonio, Grandpa and Uncle VD have hair on their heads, while my Dad and my Uncle Vince have a lot?’ “Why do old people look different and ill compared to not so old people like Mom and Dad?’ “Why doesn’t the man at the barber shop have one of his arms?”

      I began to be aware of other people’s feelings and emotions outside of my own and evaluate various physical and verbal cues as to what they were feeling and why.

       Although it would be another year or so before my parents and I would realize how badly damaged my eyes were and that my olfactory senses had also been completely destroyed from the high-oxygen prison I had been sequestered to shortly after my premature birth; I still managed to take in an enormous volume of complex sensory data.

      Perhaps it could be argued that I was able to do this because of – and not in spite of my bio-computer’s two main sensory data collecting units impairment; as an adaptation of my survival protocol to compensate for one or two losses by becoming more hyper-aware in many other ways not immediately apparent.

      At any rate, regardless of the reasons, as I became more actively aware of the external world, my internal and private cognitive processes actively increased ten-fold by comparison. This newly acquired cognitive gift was both a strength and weakness; on one hand it beckoned me to live for the majority of my time in the internal environment of “Vinny land”, thereby ignoring or muting my desire to socialize outside my family unit – especially with non-adults.

      With adults, particularly within my nuclear and extended family unit my bio-computer made an exception; because attention to these people increased my chances of survival and because of this, these infrequent interaction brought me pleasure.

      This was also the year that I began to explore further and farther away from my previous boundaries set by my mother and by my curious but cautious survival programs. This year, when my mother wasn’t looking… I actually explored beyond the wild fields behind our house. I even managed to travel to one end of our block on our street and then to the other end. It was a fearful and exciting event the first time I was bold enough to do this on my own; although I had felt somewhat safe by my ability to glance down the street and barely make out a landmark that I knew to be in front of my house. I felt as daring as an astronaut on the end of a tether as he floats outside of his spacecraft for the first time.

      At the farthest perimeter of my block I would look out with wonder as far as my myopic eyes could see… sometimes all the way to the hazy horizon.

It was during these excursions that I would wonder and marvel at the mysteries of what laid beyond, what strange sights were there to see, what strange people and dwellings would I find if I dared to keep walking?

      I’m sure I felt all of the wonder and fear that early inhabitants of earth felt when they looked out at the great expanse of the oceans and believed that the world was flat and that dreadful monsters and wondrous treasures existed beyond the boundaries that they had dared to wander.

      I could understand how they believed that beyond a certain point of venture… a hapless explorer was likely to fall off the edge of the earth.

      I remember the first time I ventured beyond the sight of the comforting landmark situated in front of our house and made a left at the corner to explore a side of the block I had never been to before. (I did not dare as yet to cross the street, which would have invited an ass whooping if my mother found out!).

      It was frightening to give up sight of the familiar landmark as I decided to use the corner of our block as a new sight to anchor to. As I traveled up the block I kept on looking back fearfully, instinctually, to get my visual bearings… and I kept going until I made it to another uncharted corner of the block we lived.

      I felt a keen sense of satisfaction and triumph! My confidence grew as I walked numerous times back and forth boldly from my new found territory to my house and back again. I felt as bold and rugged as any seasoned trapper that traveled wilderness areas where most city folk were too timid to ponder much less explore.

      Then the day came when I was bold enough to make another left on the block on which we lived; and I traveled this route back and forth until I felt casual about my surroundings.

      Finally the time came when I made my third left turn. I traveled down the new length of this street without performing my usual back and forth wanderings to bolster my confidence in unfamiliar terrain. Instead, I boldly went forward until I came down to the unknown corner at the far end.

      Once I made it to my new goal, certain sites struck me as familiar. This of course confused me. I looked right, I looked left. My world was rocked! Much to my surprise and amazement, I was looking at the street on which my house was situated!

      As smart as I was, (as smart as I like to think I was), I had never in my wildest imaginings expected to come back close to my place of origin – my home – by this route. I’m sure I felt as elated and triumphed as Magellan must have when he and his crew of fearful and brave Argonauts had been the first men to ever circumnavigated the globe.

      Like a joyful idiot, I madly ran to my house and then around the block one direction and then another laughing like a maniacal troll as I did this several times.

My behavior must have looked so odd that several adults and their families had ventured out of their homes or stopped their tasks in their yards to stare at the strange and unfamiliar kid laughing, yelling and giggling as I made my way around several times.

      Needless to say, this wondrous adventure inspired me over time to travel in ever widening jaunts… taking in two blocks, then two blocks squared and so forth. Which meant that finally I had disobeyed my mother whenever I needed to cross any street. Of course at this age, I could only do this when my mother was distracted or more often than not, when she was sleeping off her depression generated thyroid condition.

      Eventually I would be miles away from home searching woodlands and steams. There were more than a few occasions however, that I found my self lost and scared, as I would frantically wander in one direction and then another in search of familiar landmarks.

      It was during these frightful times that I would break down in tears as I worried that I would never see my home or my family again.

Somehow I always managed to find my way home and when I did the relief and joy I felt was what Ulysses must have experienced when he finally found his way home after twenty years of wandering lost – the oceans of the world.

      During this year my preoccupation with my penis increased. I believed this is partially because I was like most normal boys, but, perhaps my focus on it was taken to several levels beyond what most boys would have gone. I think that in place of my defective eyes and non-existent olfactory sensors… my penis had adapted in part beyond its function as urinary discharge hose and mere pleasure sensor – much like a blind man’s cane. It had in part adapted – I’m sure – as a environmental sensor to take the place or compensate for the loss of my other two very important sensory input receptors.

      I am convinced that my enhanced unit of pleasure helped me to make my way in the world as I imagined it in its own way, out and about, sniffing around and as receptive as any high-tech interstellar antenna.

      Although, at the time I had no idea how much trouble my enhanced pleasure sensor would get me into many years later.

      All things being equal, however, I believe that its enhanced abilites may have aid in my survival and certainly the pleasure it would give me over a lifetime had been increased exponentially.

      Do you find that hard to believe? Well, give this a thought… why else would a deaf-mute such as Hellen Keller always be so damn cheerful for a person suffering such impairments. Let’s not forget Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder… there is no wondering as to why they always have a wide self-satisfied smile on their faces.

      No doubt the three of them experienced an enhancement with their bio-computers’ sexual sensors as well.

      In addition to all of these added features to my bio-computer and its peripheral hardware, this was the first year that I actually was aware of the events going on in the world outside of my family and the block we lived on.

      I remember all of the most popular songs of this year and my mother’s books she left laying around the house, and especially the movies and new TV shows that we saw at least once.

      This year, I became aware for the first time, first hand, what my parents were talking about or watching on TV with regards to politics and news worthy tragedies that were happening in the United States and around the world as well.

      Perhaps not in the detail that I outline for this year, but at least at a very basic level of understanding or at least remembering.

      For instance, some of the examples of what I remember at least at a rudimentary level that happen this year was: A handsome charismatic scion of America’s leading family, the Kennedy’s was inaugurated as thirty-fifth President of the United States. He was unusual in that he was the first Irish Catholic to be elected and he was young. He was also so cool that he was able to start the no hat craze that would be adopted by other politicians.  His religion was an issue with non-Catholics because of their fear that he would subjugate himself to the Pope. To many of Americans, he was like a beacon of light to the post war torn country.

      Before Kennedy took over the Presidency, President Eisenhower in a farewell State of the Union Address to Congress warns of the increasing power of the “Military-Industrial Complex”.

      John F. Kennedy inspired hope and vision to a future of hope to people of all ages. During his few years of office he began the U.S. Commitment to Vietnam by sending money to increase southern forces and providing advisors.

      He created the Peace Corp, imploring our nation to “Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country.” The first head of the Peace Corp was his brother-in-law Sergeant Shriver… Maria Shriver the wife of Arnold Schwarzenegger wife and first lady of California.

      He also was responsible for the Bay of Pigs invasion fiasco. Unlike most politicians he bravely publicly accept all blame and responsibility for the fiasco, even though the plans first took place during the Eisenhower administration, thus further endearing him to the American people…even his distracters.

      In June of the first year of Camelot, President Kennedy and Khrushchev meet for two days in Vienna to talk about nuclear tests and disarmament and Germany.

      This year the Kennedy-Khrushchev summit was set up to discuss many issues particularly our involvement with Laos and The East Germans affect with the west. Khrushchev threatened Kennedy that force will be met with force and Kennedy stood his ground telling Khrushchev that it will be a cold winter. Since the Vienna Kennedy-Khrushchev summit an exodus of people rushed from East Germany to the West as the Berlin wall was being built. The Soviets threatened war as they detonated the largest nuclear bomb ever – a hydrogen bomb at sixty megatons called “Tsar Bomba”, over Novava Zemlya.

      The wall in Berlin was finally built halting the exodus of people from the East to the West. Tension of total world annihilation increased.

      Our beloved leader adds to the folly by sending eighteen thousand “military advisors” to South Vietnam. (The population of a mid-size town).

      More racial unrest in Alabama and Mississippi from the ‘Freedom Fighters’.

      I remember my father and mother lamenting the damn illogical rules against obscenity is the rule of the day. This year was also the beginning of a decade of artist fighting for first amendment rights. 

      Lenny Bruce a comedian and social satirist was arrested for obscenity at a workshop in San Francisco for using friendly words such as cocksucker and the word cum in place of orgasm. His arrests became frequent for obscenity. He suffered multiple arrests for drug possession in Philadelphia, Los Angeles.

      The space race helps to keep us distracted as the Soviets also sent Yuri, the first human in space further increasing our competitive nature. President Kennedy makes a speech that we will land a man on the Moon before the end of the Decade, giving all Americans a vision for the future. He officially begins the Apollo Space Program and shortly after, Astronaut Gus Grissom became the second American to go into space when he piloted the Mercury IV capsule.

      The world population reached three billion during the first year of Camelot and for me the world was really becoming an interesting place.

      Yes indeed, I was enjoying or noticing all of the distractions that a handful of earth’s primitive hominids had produced this year.

The music of this year was moving away from the tone of the fifties. New bands were on the scene such as: Wonderland by Night by Bert Kaemfert, Will You Love Me Tomorrow by The Shirelles, Calcutta by Lawrence Welk, Pony Time by Chubby Checker, Surrender by Elvis Presley, Blue Moon by The Marcles, Runaway by Del Shannon, Mother-in-Law by Ernie K-Doe, Running Scared by Roy Orbison, and Traveling Man by Ricky Nelson. Woody Guthrie was still popular and Bod Dylan had just came on the scene.

The tone of the movies were changing also with the likes of: The Guns of Navarone, The Absent-Minded Professor, The Parent Trap, Swiss Family Robinson, Exodus, The World of Suzie Wong, Alamo, Gone With the Wind, 101 Dalmatians, Splendor in the Grass, West Side Story, Judgment at Nuremberg, and Two Women with Sophia Loren.

The most popular books that year which my mom read were: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone, The Carpetbaggers by Harold Robbins, The Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller, The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck.

Some or the new shows to the list was Bonanza, Hazel, Perry Mason, Dr. Kildare. Ben Casey, The Bob Newhart Show, The Bullwinkle Show, Car 54, Where are You, David Brinkley’s Journal, The Defenders, The Glenn Miller Show, Gunslinger, The Hathaways, The Joey Bishop Show, Margie, Mr. Ed, and Ripcord.

      It was during this year that these people who would prove to be essential, in their own way to the survival of our species was: Eddie Murphy - American actor and comedian, Randal L. Schwartz - American computer programmer, Eric Allin Cornell - American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate, Ben Johnson - Canadian athlete.